After three years away from the sport, Bob Vandergriff, from nearby Alpharetta, GA, made his return to competition in Atlanta. He qualified 10th with a 4.654-second pass, ran 4.663 in the first round, but lost a close race to Darrell Russell. "For our first official time out, the car was flawless and actually could have served as a very fast bracket car," Vandergriff said. "Our goal now is to make it an extremely fast bracket car and we know we need to pick up a tenth to do that."

After losing an engine in the semis, Millican's crew thrashed to get ready for their third consecutive final-round appearance -- but also lost for the third-straight time, marking only the third time since 1984 that's occurred in Top Fuel.

FUNNY CAR

Tony Bartone, driving for Jim Dunn (behind car, black hat), made a big jump from the bump spot heading into the final qualifying session to end up 10th for raceday, but lost to points leader Del Worsham in the first round

Ron Capps' struggles this year continued in Atlanta, where he qualified 15th, his worst starting position in nearly four years. Afterward, crew chiefs John Stewart, Todd Okuhara, and Phil Shuler decided to run a similar setup to that of teammate Tommy Johnson Jr.'s car and Capps finally ran in the fours in the first round (4.945/265.33), but lost to Whit Bazemore.